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I recently stated that God cannot have a relationship with an imperfect person. This is a difficult topic to discuss because our sense of civility tells us that a value judgment is being made. Value judgments are not well regarded in our culture at the moment, because we want to believe that everyone is perfect, and everything is all right.
Nevertheless, if we are going to live the Christian life we have to understand what the Christian life is. If we are going to understand what the Christian life is we have to understand the context within which it is to be lived, or not. Specifically, we have to understand who God is and who we are.
To begin, understand that when I refer to God as “perfect,” or to unredeemed persons as “imperfect,” no value judgment is involved. Neither is there any value judgment in referring to some persons as “unredeemed.” When I say God is perfect (in the context of this discussion) I am not saying that He is “good.” When I say that some persons are “unredeemed” or “imperfect,” I’m not saying that they are bad. I might be wrong in saying these things about a person, but I am not being mean; I’m just trying to state the truth as simply and accurately as possible. If we respond to such terminology with resentment, our ability to deal with truth is compromised.
“Perfect,” in this context means something like: All the parts are there and functioning properly. If we examine ourselves, or allow ourselves to be examined, with a view toward improving our lives, it will not be useful to react to well-meaning assessments with resentment. Resentment is the enemy of life improvement and a barrier to healing. It may protect us from being hurt by the truth, but it obstructs the renewing process, as well.
Christians generally believe that God created humans so He would have someone else to relate to in love. We understand that, in order to have a loving relationship, both parties have to be able to choose whether to be in the relationship. As Christians, whose lives have been “made new,” and whose minds are being “renewed,” we understand some things that we did not understand when we were dead to the Spirit of God and our minds were under the control of Satan. One of the things we see is that, when we are first given the choice to have a relationship with the perfect God, humans invariably choose to opt out. We need to spend a bit of time explaining why that is.
When Christians pray and worship they sometimes look to God and say, “You are God and I am not.” For example, I found this brief written prayer when surfing for those words:
Lord, we do the best we can – at least we think so. Humble us to see ourselves and our ministry through your eyes. Keep us from envy and the pitfall of endlessly admiring the plans of others. Help us to stay with you as we work to implement our worship. Keep us from falling into neatly arranged traps of self-deceit and arrogance. You are God and we are not. Thank heaven. Thank you! Amen (Doug Lawrence, http://www.creatormagazine.com/dnn/MondayMorningEmail/September172007/tabid/345/Default.aspx)
No matter how many times I acknowledge words like these, and even say them, I never do so without some slight bit of resentment. Something inside me says, “That’s not fair. I never get to be God. Why do I always have to be the humble one?” Perhaps you have that reaction, as well. The reason we feel that way is that we understand that this God (whom we are not) is bigger than us in every way and has the ability to exercise power over us. Even if we believe that He is good, and can never do a single thing that is contrary to what is best for us, there is something inside us that wants to be able to do it ourselves. This is why, if we live long enough, we will try to take God’s place, at least in our own lives. Now we have a serious problem, because God will let us try it!
Remember that in order to have a loving relationship, both parties have to be in the relationship voluntarily. God is not interested in pretend love. In fact, God is not capable of pretend love. Neither is He capable of pretending that we love Him. When we want to turn away from God and be our own god, He just lets us go. We call it “free will.” God is sad when we move away from Him, but, unlike us, He values our relationship more than He values His power. The movie “Bruce Almighty” is a sort of spoof on “being God” while, at the same time, points out the poignancy.
The movie portrays God as a wise but smart-aleckey elderly man. God tells Bruce that if he wants to, Bruce can fix all the world’s problems in a few minutes, knowing full well from eons of experience that he cannot. Bruce receives millions of prayers, all from, according to God, just the town he lives in. Bruce is thus able to realize just how much work God must do to keep the entire creation “in line.”
At one point Bruce and God are discussing Bruce’s frustration with trying to get a girl he loves to love him in return:
Bruce: How do you make someone love you without affecting their free will?
God: Heh, welcome to my world, son. If you come up with an answer to that one, you let me know.
But the situation is worse than just poignant, because when a person turns away from God that person has willfully rejected the perfection for which God created him, and has exchanged it for the small kingdom of his little world. He also gives up absolute protection of God in a world system that intends nothing but evil for him.
Many people in American culture will find it difficult to identify with my last statement. We live in a society that judges its value predominantly by externals, such as how much stuff we have, how much power we exert, and how good we look. Moreover, we make our judgments about these things by comparing ourselves with other people.
This works quite well for those who profit from this value system. For example, if we decide how “good” we are based on our ranking in the wealth department, the money greed mongers will thrive. If we value ourselves based on our looks, the fashion and fitness businesses will get rich.
These businesses are energetically engaged in getting us to buy into these value systems and to reject the perfection and love that God offers, for obvious reasons. No matter, we continue to “buy in” literally and figuratively. In doing so we are rejecting the values of God in favor of our own pleasure and power. We love ourselves and repudiate God.
If it was possible for God to overlook our rejection of His love, we could slide. But, remember, God is perfect. He is not only perfectly loving, He is perfectly just. The effect of our rejection of Him is not a neutral influence in the world. When we reject God, our influence is negative on people around us. Thus, we not only reject God, but we influence others to do so as well. In this system, as scripture teaches, it is inevitable that we all reject Him, which renders us imperfect, and God can no longer have a relationship with us. Thus, He leaves us to our own devices. He did not turn His back on us; we turned our backs on Him. Since God, our Creator, is the source of spiritual life, this separation from God results in spiritual death.
An imperfect creature cannot make itself perfect. The damage has been done. Even if the creature gives his life to God, the life is flawed. The life must be “redeemed,” (bought back) and the creature doesn’t have the perfect, infinite currency that would be required to pay admission back to the presence of God. Only God has it.
How terrifying! The only person that can buy us back is the person that we have offended! We have turned our back on the only person that has ever done anything truly kind for us, asking nothing but love in return. If we are to be redeemed He would have to pay the debt, but the debt we owe is to Him!
The debt cannot merely be forgiven. His justness demands that it be paid. Clearly, the only reason that God would help us in this situation is if His love is so pure that He is willing to pay a debt that we incurred by our own selfishness, against the only person that ever truly loved us, when we had no reason to do so.
The debt is so large that only the life of God can pay it, and He is God, and we are not. Then, He pays it. We continue to have moments of rebellion, and He keeps on paying it. We turn our back and head for the pigpen again. Terrified once more, we look back toward the only real home we ever had, daring to hope that He will forgive again. Has He paid enough, has He finally turned His back, as any sane human being would do? No, He stands in the door gazing after us, waiting again, with arms outstretched. Why? Because He is God and we are not. I hope the words are a little easier to say now.
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